Speaking to Premier, Bishop Joe says although the Church of England is putting measures in place to try to increase the number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) clergy, they won’t be effective unless those clergy push for change and are vocal from within the structure itself :

“All the indications are that the Church of England have been trying to address racism. The question for me is whether the way the Church of England is going about it is likely to succeed.

“My fear is that historically, like much of the rest of society, the Church of England is trying to address the issue by trying to hold the feet of the church to the fire. I’m afraid no matter how long you hold the feet of the institution to the fire, it is not likely to be able to deliver what is required. What is needed is some activism that sees them as equal participants in this business of bringing about equality.

“Black people within the Church of England need to stand up as human beings – as Christians in their own right – not trying to somehow fit in with a white-ism that has its historic roots in slavery.

“What is needed is for the black people, particularly within the Church of England to stop pleading with the institution to change and to stand up to it and make it change.”

Read it all.

Big thank you to Dr bishop Joe Aldred for chairing my Birmingham book launch taking it to the max. pic.twitter.com/OOhCes3Oxr

— Maxie Hayles MBE (@maxiehaylesMBE) November 5, 2016

Most single American adults aspire to be married. But for many now, marriage is supposed to be a capstone achievement rather than a cornerstone of young adult life. The “capstone model” says you are supposed to have all your ducks in a row—education, some professional success, and a clear adult identity—before you marry.

The median age at first marriage has increased over the past 50 years in the United States—from 23 in 1970 to about 30 in 2021 for men, and from 21 in 1970 to 28 in 2021 for women—with no sign of this upward trend leveling off.

Indeed, a recent national survey of millennials (ages 18–33) found the vast majority of respondents agree that marrying later means both people will be more mature, more likely to have achieved important personal goals, and more likely to have personal finances in order. Moreover, these young adults believe that later marriages will be more stable and of higher quality. That is the widely accepted cultural narrative.

Do later unions consistently provide better prospects for marital success than earlier ones? We often hear about the advantages of capstone marriage, but there has been little empirical investigation of those supposed benefits.

In a new State of Our Unions: 2022 report published by the National Marriage Project, the Wheatley Institution, and the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, Alan Hawkins’s team of researchers reports on an empirical investigation of potential differences and similarities between two groups: early-marrieds (ages 20–24), who are more aligned with a “cornerstone marriage” model, and later-marrieds (25-plus), who are more aligned with a capstone marriage model. The study analyzes a wide range of marital outcomes.

Read it all.

Are marriages after turning 25 more stable and higher quality than marriages in your early 20's?

Here's what the numbers say https://t.co/01QKAOZWu9

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 9, 2022

The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina gathered in Florence, SC, the evening of February 4, 2022, to celebrate the ministry of, and express their deep and abiding affection for both the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, who has served as their Bishop for the last 14 years and his wife, Allison.

Bishop Lawrence will officially step down from his role in March following the consecration of the Very Rev. Chip Edgar.

The evening began with a reception at St. John’s Church, Florence, which preceded the program at The Florence Performing Arts Center.

The Rev. Shay Gaillard, Rector of The Parish Church of St. Helena, Beaufort, and President of the Diocesan Standing Committee, and his wife, Tara, served as the emcees.

Read it all.

One Word Clergy Describe Bishop Lawrence from The Anglican Diocese of SC on Vimeo.

Last week I was delighted to visit Cotswold School with Lucy Taylor (Diocesan Director of Communications and Engagement) to discuss our Liedentity work and to make plans for a future visit. It was good to hear of all that the school have put in place regarding mental health and I’m looking forward to making a podcast on the issue next month which will involve some of the students at the school.

Also last week I heard the story from a speaker in another diocese, of a young person with many struggles in her life. Someone rather tentatively invited her to a church youth event where she heard about Jesus Christ for the first time and at the end of it expressed some anger and frustration. This was not because of the event, but because she couldn’t understand why no one had told her of this good news before.

That is a sobering challenge for all of us who are adults. It is not an issue simply to be placed at the feet of youth ministers or Christian teenagers, teachers or parents, but rather I believe it is something God longs for each of us to hear and to respond to with lament, hope, action and prayer.

In LIFE Together in this diocese, local stories have resulted in the shining of a spotlight on ‘Investing in people and programmes which excite young people to explore and grow in faith’.

Read it all.

"… I believe it is something God longs for each of us to hear and to respond to with lament, hope, action and prayer."

~ @BishGloucester's message for #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek
👉 https://t.co/SFQME9sLzX 👈 pic.twitter.com/jBZEi69QFN

— The Diocese of Gloucester (@GlosDioc) February 9, 2022

A decade ago Amazon started to introduce robots into its “fulfilment centres”, as online retailers call their giant distribution warehouses. Instead of having people wandering up and down rows of shelves picking goods to complete orders, the machines would lift and then carry the shelves to the pickers. That saved time and money. Amazon now has more than 350,000 robots of various sorts deployed worldwide. But it is not enough to secure its future.

Advances in warehouse robotics, coupled with increasing labour costs and difficulty in finding workers, has created a watershed moment in the logistics industry. With covid-19 lockdowns causing supply-chain disruptions and a boom in home deliveries that looks likely to endure, fulfilment centres have been working at full tilt. Despite the bots, many firms have to bring in temporary workers to cope during busy periods. Competition for staff is fierce. In the run-up to the holiday shopping season in December, Amazon brought in some 150,000 extra workers in America alone, offering sign-on bonuses of up to $3,000.

The long-term implications of such a high reliance on increasingly hard-to-find labour in distribution is clear, according to a new study by McKinsey, a consultancy: “Automation in warehousing is no longer just nice to have but an imperative for sustainable growth.”

This means more robots are needed, including newer, more efficient versions to replace those already at work and advanced machines to take over most of the remaining jobs done by humans. As a result, McKinsey forecasts the warehouse-automation market will grow at a compound annual rate of 23% to be worth more than $50bn by 2030.

Read it all.

New #robots —smarter and faster—are taking over warehouses and #jobs we didn’t know existed are created https://t.co/y3L6Q8jjHN from @TheEconomist https://t.co/y3L6Q8jjHN

— Roberta Cucchiaro (@robycuc) February 8, 2022

O God, heavenly Father, who by thy Son hast made all things in heaven and earth, and yet desirest to draw to thyself our uncompelled love and devotion: Grant us grace to understand the manifestation of thy Son Christ the Lord and Saviour of mankind, and to engage all our affections in thy service, and labour to spread the gospel among those who know him not; that when he shall come again in great glory he may find a people gladly awaiting his kingdom; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them."
– William Arthur Ward #sunrise #sunrisephotography #WednesdayMotivation pic.twitter.com/DKrgFy2Qo8

— Mystic Mel (@Melshenny1) February 9, 2022

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

–Romans 12:1-8

For a short time in February — if the conditions are perfect — Horsetail Falls at @YosemiteNPS appears to be set ablaze when the sun’s light hits the waterfall at just the right angle, illuminating the water and mist to a brilliant orange fiery glow.

Photo by Nikhil Shahi pic.twitter.com/ruKoRqORoD

— US Department of the Interior (@Interior) February 9, 2022

In 2016 researchers led by microbiologist Kohei Oda of the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan reported a surprise discovery. Oda’s team visited a recycling site that focused on items made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a clear plastic that is used to make clothing fibres and drinks bottles.

Like all plastics, PET is a material made up of long string-like molecules. These are assembled from smaller molecules strung together into chains. The chemical bonds in PET chains are strong, so it is long-lasting – exactly what you do not want in a single-use plastic.

Oda’s team took samples of sediment and wastewater that were contaminated with PET, and screened them for micro-organisms that could grow on the plastic. It found a new strain of bacterium, called Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6. This microbe could grow on pieces of PET. Not only that: Oda’s team reported that the bacterium could use PET as its main source of nutrients, degrading the PET in the process.

Read it all.

When we learn to work with nature, rather than against her & utilise natural processes like this we'll find that nature can help solve many of the problems that our industrial consumer culture has created. That's the basis of the culture we need to create. https://t.co/ZwPCTKFNSN

— Alan Watson Featherstone (@AlanWatsonFeat1) February 5, 2022

A society that forgets about God, that loses the sense that it needs God (something discussed in the second interview I did), that no longer desires God – for John’s gospel has desire at its heart – such a society loses the profound call to see the wholeness of the individual human person and the call to love, by that person being set free in relationship with others. And without the church, without that community of faith, as the salt and light of that society, that society loses its way. Without God it cannot maintain a determining objective except power. As Nietzsche shows so clearly. Jacques Maritain, the Roman Catholic philosopher, wrote during the deepest darkness of 1942;

‘…deprived of a determining objective, political communion will carry its demands to the infinite, will absorb and regiment people, swallow up in itself the religious energies of the human being. Because it is not defined by a work to be done, it will only be able to define itself by its opposition to other human groups. Therefore, it will have essential need of an enemy against whom it will build itself; it is by recognizing and hating its enemies that the political body will find its own common consciousness.’[1]

Does that not speak to us as much today as it did in 1942? From the individual events like the shocking, disturbing and utterly abysmal harassing of Keir Starmer and David Lammy yesterday, to the threats of war in Eastern Europe, to the actual wars around the world. Do we not see societies forgetting God and therefore existing by the creation of an enemy. Do we not see it in our own society, and I fear do we not see it far to often in our own church?

And so in politics our concern about truth-speaking and truth-acting is not about political groupings – or in the church – but about where we find the foundations for confidence in government, confidence in leadership and above all the confidence in one another which enables us to function as a good society which seeks the common good.

Read it all.

LATEST. Communities must learn to look at the world as a single unit, rather than through what the Archbishop of Canterbury @JustinWelby described as “the lens of narrow nationalism, factionalism, politics, economic union, or self-selecting group” https://t.co/qLd1LvQPuU

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 8, 2022

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby may undertake their much anticipated, but delayed joint trip to South Sudan in “the next few months” to encourage peace in a country still recovering from a bloody civil war and a humanitarian crisis.

“God willing, sometime in the next few months, perhaps year, we will go and see them in Juba, not in Rome, and see what progress can be made,” said the head of the global Anglican Communion on Feb. 6, referring to South Sudan’s leaders.

“That is history,” said Welby of the likely trip that will mark the first time the two ecumenical leaders have traveled together in such a capacity.

Francis and Welby had sought to visit the war-torn country in 2017, although the country’s violent conflict and deteriorating conditions had foiled those plans.

Read it all.

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby may undertake their much anticipated joint trip to South Sudan in the next few months, reports NCR's @cwwhiteNCR. https://t.co/OvsHXbQQzE

— NCR (@NCRonline) February 7, 2022

A fourth Anglican bishop in a year has been received into the Catholic Church.

It was confirmed by the Church Times – an independent newspaper covering the Church of England – that the former bishop of Chester, Peter Forster, became Catholic last year.

The three other Church of England bishops to become Catholic last year are the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali; the former Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Jonathon Goodall; and the former Bishop of Burnley, John Goddard.

Read it all.

A fourth Anglican bishop in a year has been received into the Catholic Church.https://t.co/23gfmNUMa9

— Crux (@Crux) February 7, 2022

The police officer arrived at the Hindu temple here with a warning to the monks: Don’t repeat your hate speech.

Ten days earlier, before a packed audience and thousands watching online, the monks had called for violence against the country’s minority Muslims. Their speeches, in one of India’s holiest cities, promoted a genocidal campaign to “kill two million of them” and urged an ethnic cleansing of the kind that targeted Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

When videos of the event provoked national outrage, the police came. The saffron-clad preachers questioned whether the officer could be objective.

Yati Narsinghanand, the event’s firebrand organizer known for his violent rhetoric, assuaged their concerns.

Read it all.

Violent anti-Muslim rhetoric has reached a dangerous new pitch in India while the government looks away, rights groups and local activists are warning. They fear that a singular event could ignite widespread violence that would be difficult to contain.https://t.co/JyJ4tl5IQA

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 8, 2022

Almighty God, whose sovereign purpose none can make void: Give us faith to stand calm and undismayed amid the tumults of the world, knowing that thy kingdom shall come and thy will be done; to the eternal glory of thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

Sunrise – Waterloo, Isle of Skye #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 08/02/22 @angie_weather @ThePhotoHour @StormHour @VisitScotland pic.twitter.com/Ggq1jKgqAB

— James MacInnes (@Macinnesplant) February 8, 2022

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

–Hebrews 13:20-21

WOW sunset this morning in Cocoa Beach 😍😍@JimCantore #StormHour #FLwx pic.twitter.com/uSroUxgawl

— Carolyn Raskauskas (@CarolynRask) February 8, 2022

The BBC has heard reports of young people killing themselves or harming themselves and others.

Medical staff in the capital Freetown say that 90% of the male admissions to the central psychiatric ward are due to Kush use.

Police are battling to win the war against the drug.

Read it all.

Kush: Sierra Leone's new illegal drug https://t.co/JEfuTP7fUl pic.twitter.com/qtzw2hcazM

— World News (@Worldnews_Media) February 7, 2022

Listen to it all or there is more there if you so desire.

Old Man in Prayer #rembrandt #baroque pic.twitter.com/qa2U7KS2u9

— Rembrandt (@artistrembrandt) February 2, 2022

A teenaged girl who periodically transforms into a giant panda is the improbable star of “Turning Red”, a coming-of-age movie from Disney due out next month. The world’s biggest media company, which will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, is no adolescent. But Disney is going through some awkward changes of its own as it reorganises its business—worth $260bn—around the barely two-year-old venture of video-streaming.

So far the experiment has been a success. The company’s streaming operation, Disney+, initially aimed for at least 60m subscribers in its first five years, ending in 2024. It got there in less than 12 months, and now hopes for as many as 260m subscribers by that date. Bob Chapek, who took over as chief executive just before the pandemic, is convinced that Disney’s future lies in streaming directly to the consumer, his “north star”. Disney+ is all but guaranteed to be among the survivors of the ruthless period of competition that has become known as the streaming wars.

But doubts are surfacing across the industry about how much of a prize awaits the victors. Every year Disney and its rivals promise to spend more on content. And yet the growth in subscribers is showing signs of slowing. A realisation is setting in that old media companies are pivoting from a highly profitable cable-TV business to a distinctly less rewarding alternative. Amid a bout of market volatility which last week saw Alphabet’s and Amazon’s share prices rise by a tenth or more and Meta’s fall by a quarter, investors are awaiting Disney’s quarterly results on February 9th with some trepidation. So, too, is Mr Chapek, whose contract expires one year from now.

Read it all.

"The combination of rising costs and slowing revenue growth calls into question the end-state economics of these businesses." https://t.co/Qxx2JWe0Af

— Jesse Felder (@jessefelder) February 7, 2022

“The work of the Spirit can be compared to mining. The Spirit’s work is to blast to pieces the sinner’s hardness of heart and his frivolous opposition to God. The period of the awakening can be likened to the time when the blasts are fired. The time between the awakenings corresponds, on the other hand, to the time when the deep holes are being bored with great effort into the hard rock.

To bore these holes is hard and difficult and a task which tries one’s patience. To light the fuse and fire the shot is not only easy but also very interesting work. One sees “results” from such work. It creates interest, too; shots resound, and pieces fly in every direction! It takes trained workmen to do the boring. Anybody can light a fuse.

…the Spirit calls us to do the quiet, difficult, trying work of boring holy explosive materials into the souls of people by daily and unceasing prayer. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening. The reason why such a long period of time elapses between awakenings is simply that the Spirit cannot find believers who are willing to do the heavy part of the mining work. Everybody desires awakenings; but we prefer to let other do the boring into the hard rock.”

–Ole Hallesby, Prayer (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortess, 1994 printing of the 1931 original), [Book Three] pp.77-78

[…] En rekke kirke- og organisasjonsledere gir sin fulle tilslutning til en erklæring utarbeidet på forhånd av professor Ole Hallesby (bildet), rektor Hans Høeg og Berggrav. (25.10.1940) #Okkupasjonen pic.twitter.com/nbbdTn0lUX

— Okkupasjonen live: 1941 (@okkupasjonen) October 25, 2018

Church leaders could be appointed to full-time cabinet-style roles such as “Brexit bishop” or “Covid bishop” under proposals seen by The Times for the biggest overhaul of how the Church of England is run in centuries.

The ecclesiastical map of England could also be redrawn via mergers between the 42 dioceses, the creation of new constituencies for bishops based on cities or counties and the appointment of senior “regional” bishops to oversee large areas of the country.

The church has been accused of wanting to form a “shadow government” because of proposals that some senior bishops could be detached from geographical regions to serve as spokesmen or women on political matters.

A consultation document commissioned by the church’s three top leaders, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishop of London, sets out a wide range of ideas for “significant changes to the shape, structure and number of dioceses and bishops”.

Read it all (subscription).

FULL STORY:

Biggest overhaul in centuries to how Church of England is run, under proposals seen by @TheTimes

Could see:

– bishops as cabinet-style spokespeople on political issues (eg: "Brexit bishop")
– mergers of dioceses
– new bishop constituencieshttps://t.co/h5heiHI0eV

— Kaya Burgess (@kayaburgess) February 7, 2022

O Christ our God, who wilt come to judge the world in the manhood which thou hast assumed: We pray thee to sanctify us wholly, that in the day of thy coming we may be raised to live and reign with thee for ever.

A bit of sunshine to start the week off with. Taken this morning in Glastonbury. pic.twitter.com/dCZP8hm095

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) February 7, 2022

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 13:14-16

'It is you whom I invoke, O Lord. In the morning you hear me; in the morning I offer you my prayer, watching & waiting' (psalm 5) #lauds #morningprayer pic.twitter.com/XSrXSX92Yf

— EileanIdhe🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@EileanIdhe) February 7, 2022

Lord, because being compassed with infirmities we oftentimes sin and ask for pardon: Help us to forgive as we would be forgiven; neither mentioning old offences committed against us, nor dwelling upon them in thought, nor being influenced by them in heart; but loving our brother freely, as thou freely lovest us; for Christ’s sake.

Early Morning Tracks. 7°C and a very strong breeze. Rabbits. pic.twitter.com/BDoifjCHos

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) February 6, 2022

The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength. Yea, the world is established; it shall never be moved; thy throne is established from of old; thou art from everlasting.

–Psalm 93:1-2

Male bullfinch at North Cave Wetlands. #ThePhotoHour #TwitterNatureCommunity #wildlifephotography #nature #birds pic.twitter.com/AvZfIAhvug

— Rodshelf (@rodshelf) February 6, 2022

Of course there is a lot of division across many parts of American society. But for evangelicals, who have dedicated their lives to Jesus, the problem is deeper. Christians are supposed to believe in the spiritual unity of the church. While differing over politics and other secondary matters, they are in theory supposed to be unified by their shared first love — as brothers and sisters in Christ. Their common devotion is supposed to bring out the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,” say the opening lines of a famous Christian song commonly known as “By Our Love.” In its chorus it proclaims, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” The world envisioned by that song seems very far away right now. The bitter recriminations have caused some believers to wonder if the whole religion is a crock.

Russell Moore resigned from his leadership position in the Southern Baptist Convention last spring over the denomination’s resistance to addressing the racism and sexual abuse scandals in its ranks. He tells me that every day he has conversations with Christians who are losing their faith because of what they see in their churches. He made a haunting point last summer when I saw him speak in New York State at a conference at a Bruderhof community, which has roots in the Anabaptist tradition. “We now see young evangelicals walking away from evangelicalism not because they do not believe what the church teaches,” he said, “but because they believe that the church itself does not believe what the church teaches.”

The proximate cause of all this disruption is Trump. But that is not the deepest cause. Trump is merely the embodiment of many of the raw wounds that already existed in parts of the white evangelical world: misogyny, racism, racial obliviousness, celebrity worship, resentment and the willingness to sacrifice principle for power.

Read it all.

Worth reading and reflecting, by @nytdavidbrooks with @KSPrior, @DavidAFrench, et al. “The Dissenters Trying to Save Evangelicalism From Itself” https://t.co/GDhkPG4Cvo

— Dr. Michael J. Svigel (@Svigel) February 5, 2022

A former Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, was received into the Roman Catholic Church last year, it was confirmed this week.

The news follows the reception of Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, a former Bishop of Rochester, into the RC Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and the resignation of the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall, to be received into the RC Church….

Dr Forster retired as Bishop in September 2019, aged 69, after more than 22 years in post…. Concerns about his handling of safeguarding matters had been raised, and, before his retirement, he delegated all safeguarding responsibilities to the Suffragan Bishop of Birkenhead at that time, the Rt Revd Keith Sinclair….

Dr Forster and his wife have moved to a house in Scotland, which has been under construction for several years. It is understood that he was received in Scotland.

Read it all.

Another one!
Former Bishop of Chester received into Roman Catholic Church https://t.co/vGUh5ayLAT

— Fr David Palmer (@FrDavidPalmer) February 4, 2022

O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy saints, and who didst bring the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith that we profess, even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

5 Feb 1597 – The 26 Martyrs of Japan are crucified at Nagasaki. This group of early Japanese converts, and their missionary ministers, were executed as Christianity was seen as a threat to Japanese society. #OTD #History #Japan #Nagasaki pic.twitter.com/b14yHD9doK

— PKL Living History (@gaelhistory) February 5, 2022

Grant us, O God, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your path may not stumble; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Not a bad start to the day here in Glastonbury. pic.twitter.com/RX7AE1AOL7

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) February 5, 2022

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers entreat that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

–Hebrews 12:18-29

Morning all. Enjoy the weekend

St Sunday Crag across Ullswater pic.twitter.com/iyegZQA5s5

— Johnny (@FlockofGhosts) February 5, 2022

The Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions were once the engines of the country’s economy and dominated its politics.

They produced its richest man, billionaire industrialist Rinat Akhmetov, as well as former President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted by the street protests that triggered the Russian invasion in 2014.